At this moment a perfect howling was heard; it was the brave J.
T. Maston who had just fallen all in a heap. Forgetting on the
one hand that his right arm had been replaced by an iron hook,
and on the other that a simple gutta-percha cap covered his
brain-box, he had given himself a formidable blow.

They hurried toward him, picked him up, restored him to life. And what were his first words?

"Ah! trebly brutes! quadruply idiots! quintuply boobies that we are!"

"What is it?" exclaimed everyone around him.

"What is it?"

"It is, simpletons," howled the terrible secretary, "it is that
the projectile only weighs 19,250 pounds!"

"Well?"

"And that it displaces twenty-eight tons, or in other words
56,000 pounds, and that consequently _it floats_!"

Ah! what stress the worthy man had laid on the verb "float!"
And it was true! All, yes! all these savants had forgotten
this fundamental law, namely, that on account of its specific
lightness, the projectile, after having been drawn by its fall
to the greatest depths of the ocean, must naturally return to
the surface. And now it was floating quietly at the mercy of
the waves.

The boats were put to sea. J. T. Maston and his friends had
rushed into them! Excitement was at its height! Every heart
beat loudly while they advanced to the projectile. What did
it contain? Living or dead?

Living, yes! living, at least unless death had struck
Barbicane and his two friends since they had hoisted the flag. Profound silence reigned on the boats. All were breathless.
Eyes no longer saw. One of the scuttles of the projectile was open. Some pieces of glass remained in the frame, showing that it had been broken. This scuttle was actually five feet above the water.

A boat came alongside, that of J. T. Maston, and J. T. Maston rushed to the broken window.